The beauty of a closed street…

[zanna_leigh]

@dasgeh 17876 wrote:

but what about shutting down Wilson/Clarendon or Columbia Pike? Glebe? Sounds like the kind of thing a LAB Gold community would do…

Shutting down Columbia Pike or Glebe road would be an excellent idea! Especially since they both are not bike friendly. Would love to see that happen…

[Tim Kelley]

I think there is a lot of support from the County for something like this, as it has been discussed as a potential project in the past. Cost of police shutting down the roads is a hurdle, but one thing that would definitely help make it a reality would be the general public rallying in support and asking that it happen!

[eminva]

@Tim Kelley 17881 wrote:

I think there is a lot of support from the County for something like this, as it has been discussed as a potential project in the past. Cost of police shutting down the roads is a hurdle, but one thing that would definitely help make it a reality would be the general public rallying in support and asking that it happen!

Tim, when you say “general public,” do you mean residents of Arlington, or anybody? I am not a resident, but I do a fair amount of shopping and personal business in Arlington due to its bike friendliness, and conceivably would do more if something like this were to happen.

Thanks.

Liz

[Tim Kelley]

Liz–I think that as a cyclist in Arlington, your input is definitely appreciated. Especially if you are bringing your shopping dollars in from other areas!

[KLizotte]

The biggest obstacle with such an idea are residential areas being denied access to the street via their vehicles. In places with four lanes it may work to allocate two lanes to cars and two to cyclists.

Beach Drive works well because it requires very little police manpower and the blockades are “in-built.”

In Boston Memorial Drive is shut down on Sundays during the summertime. A similar idea would be to close traffic on Hain’s Pt, Ohio Drive along West Potomac Park, part of Independence Ave around the Tidal Basin, then Ohio Drive for the last leg. That would make a nice loop and given the lack of residences, businesses (except on Hain’s Pt) and feeder roads it wouldn’t cost too much or impose hardship on too many people. Pedicabs can provide service to the Jefferson Memorial for folks that don’t (or can’t) walk there. And there’s CaBi!

On the Arlington side, closing the GW Parkway is the most obvious choice and would tie nicely with the idea of it being a *park*. Good luck dealing with NPS on that one though.

When the improvements are made to the Pentagon City/Washington Blvd bridge areas one could shut down Washington and Arlington Blvds and Army Navy Drive to create a loop using the MVT.

Wilson and Clarendon Blvds suffer from the Big Hill problem but may still be doable, esp if they are joined to form a loop.

Ideally the closed street would be easily accessible from one of the major trails.

Columbia Pike would be cool esp since I could see the small independently owned shops getting into the action by setting up tents to serve food and the like. It could also be turned into a loop via FMR, South Joyce Street, 15th Street, South Hayes, 18th Street to MVT.

[baiskeli]

@Tim Kelley 17881 wrote:

I think there is a lot of support from the County for something like this, as it has been discussed as a potential project in the past. Cost of police shutting down the roads is a hurdle, but one thing that would definitely help make it a reality would be the general public rallying in support and asking that it happen!

The big problem would not be people who want to simply drive on the street to get from A to B, since they could easily take a detour, but people who live on it and want to use their cars and/or businesses that want access or car traffic. So you’d want to pick a street that’s got little of either, or you’ll face massive complaints.

P.S. I see KLizotte just posted the same idea at exactly the same time I did.

[dasgeh]

Internationally, there seem to be two approaches that work — one is to pick a road that doesn’t have a lot of businesses/residences, as people have suggested here. People set up tents to “serve” those out on bikes. Bogota kinda takes this tack.

The other is to pick a road that has lots of businesses, and just accept that, on a Sunday morning, those businesses won’t lose a lot from banning cars, but could gain a lot from the bikes along the route — bikes, I might add, that are a lot easier to stop and shop, and that are proven to contribute a lot more $$ to local business than stinky cars.

For residents, you just accept that they can drive for the half block or so that would be necessary for them to get to an open road. Not that complicated, especially if you time the closure right.

I like the latter, which is why I think Columbia Pike or Wilson/Clarendon (I was thinking at the top of the Hill – e.g. between Ballston and Courthouse — because I hate hills) would work best. Looking at the map, it seems you could close Fairfax between Ballston and Clarendon, then W/C between Clarendon and Courthouse. There are pretty obvious routes for cars north (Washington-13th-Highland-Key) and south (Wilson-10th-Barton). From Ballston you basically connect to the Custis and Bluemont Trails. From Courthouse Veitch takes you up to the Custis…

It may be too late this year, but wouldn’t this be wonderful to have on the Sunday after the Clarendon Cup (June 10)?

[KLizotte]

@Tim Kelley 17881 wrote:

I think there is a lot of support from the County for something like this, as it has been discussed as a potential project in the past. Cost of police shutting down the roads is a hurdle, but one thing that would definitely help make it a reality would be the general public rallying in support and asking that it happen!

Who should we start haunting about this idea?

[Tim Kelley]

@KLizotte 17902 wrote:

Who should we start haunting about this idea?

County Board Member Jay Fissette is a big fan of this idea and I’m sure that he and other County Board members would be thrilled to hear about your enthusiasm and encouragement. Even for those cyclists who are outside of Arlington, I’d bet the Board would be happy to hear that an event like this would bring in people from across the region!

[Mark Blacknell]

Glad to see this come up. As Tim noted, there’s been a fair amount of discussion about this at the County staff (and elected) level, and there’s good support for it. The big stumbling block is police costs. I don’t think resident pushback would be too much of an issue with a well designed route and lots of notice. And business? Shouldn’t be a problem at all.

Wilson Boulevard closes for events regularly – Clarendon Day, Clarendon Cup, parades, etc. You know who sees a big increase in foot traffic those days? All the businesses along Wilson Boulevard. I don’t think it has to be nearly the obstacle that folks think it is.

I think putting it in areas where people live and shop (R-B corridor, Columbia Pike, etc), instead of some out of the way space (GW Parkway) would be more attractive to people. It also does a better job of illustrating just how good things can be when space is devoted to people, instead of the machines they drive.

Portland’s Sunday Parkways program is a good model. I had a chance to chat for a few hours with some of the people that helped get that off the ground there. No small amount of work, but I think it’s well worth it in the end. Agree? Let the County Manager and County Board Chair Mary Hynes know you’d like to see the County support such an effort. Even better, help ID some sponsors who could share the costs of the police.

[consularrider]

I like the idea of a car free Sunday morning. One thing that would be different here than in Mexico City and Bogota and could be an issue along the Courthouse/Ballston corridor would be access to churches. When I lived in Mexico City, I was just off Reforma near the Auditorio. Even in that less dense part of the urban area, people rarely drove to religious services, and there was almost no parking near the neighborhood churches. It seems to me that in Arlington, a much higher percentage drive to church so that the period between 10 am and 1 pm access to those places along any chosen route might be a sticking point.

I also lived in Madrid where most of the Casa de Campo, a large park on the city’s west side, is closed to auto traffic on weekends. The outer roads allowed access to the parking lots, zoo, and an amusement park. The interior roads were used by hundreds of cyclists and runners every weekend. There were numerous outdoor restaurants located near the lake in the park that were close to the parking lots and these were packed on nice days. I also believe Buenos Aires closed off roads around the Campo de Golf or some of the parks along Avenida del Libertador located near the Jorge Newberry Airport just north of downtown inland from the Rio de la Plata on weekends or Sundays.

[dasgeh]

Good point about getting buy-in from the churches. We go to Clarendon Presbyterian, which is just off of Wilson, and I’m sure the church would be supportive. I don’t know of any churches directly on Wilson/Clarendon/Fairfax. There would also have to be some n/s crossings that weren’t closed, but you could line those up with the churches (e.g. Highland). You could set the lights on any closed intersections to green (for the bike street), then set the lights on the open intersections to yellow and let the cops control traffic.

[Mark Blacknell]

Idea for a Saturday morning. Intersections along Key manned and available for crossing. Key Boulevard essentially shuts down for Halloween, so I expect that honest advance work with residents could produce something good.

[dasgeh]

Or just Wilson/Clarendon from Veitch to Highland.

[Mark Blacknell]

My clear impression is that closing both is a nonstarter. Imagine the Whole Foods Howl.

[Author]

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